Steve Schwartz, justifiably qvetching about our culture:

>If a barbarian is someone who believes he knows all he needs to know,
>then most of us live among barbarians.
>
>I've just had an argument with an old friend about whether 'twas ever
>thus.  I tend to think so.  What strikes me as new, however, is that
>these days, most people have no embarrassment at all about their own
>ignorance.  After all, look at most of our public figures.  They seem
>to have done just fine without knowing who Brahms is.
>
>And people who do care about classical music, art, poetry are snobs
>and elitists. Other folks who are INTERESTED in something,
>ENTHUSIASTIC about something,are geeks, nerds, wonks . No doubt I am
>missing some other honorifics. The historian  Gary Wills announced
>the end of The Enlightenment shortly after the presidential
>election. but it occurs to me that Enlightenment values have never
>done that well outside of cities anyway.

Relevant to this discussion, I just gave a few hundred dollars to a
fund to keep the Metropolitan Opera broadcasts on.  The last thing this
society needs is another source of accessible culture disappearing.  I
have no idea how large the audience for these programs is- I assume at
least a few million.  But I have this romantic notion that some young
person out on the plains somewhere, or in the inner city for that matter,
will hear these broadcasts and perhaps be inspired to probe a bit further
into the world of art and music.  (The Public Radio barbarians have
already restricted these broadcasts, apparently in the belief that "Wait,
wait, don't tell me "is way more important than the creations of mostly
dead white males.  There are two NPR stations in Boston, but it is the
Harvard station, WHRB, that carries the Met),

If this is a dark age, if the barbarians are doing better than ever,
our duty is clear.  We need to save civilization.  Put on a cd!!  Read
a good book!!

Spread the word!!  There may be more of us than we might imagine.
Recently retired from the Boston University Physics Department, but still
doing stuff there, I recently discovered that a colleague has an intense
interest in contemporary music - not just Bartok and Stravinsky, but
stuff written in the last few years.

Best wishes for the New Year - dress warm, you are needed to save
civilization.

Bernard Chasan